Wayland volleyball slips from No. 3 to No. 11

By KEVIN LEWIS Wayland Baptist University

Published 4:36 pm, Tuesday, September 9, 2014

After opening their season by going 4-4 at two prestigious tournaments in Florida and Nebraska, the Wayland Baptist volleyball team saw its No. 3 preseason ranking drop to No. 11 in the first regular-season Tachikara-NAIA Volleyball coaches’ Top 25 Poll.

The Pioneers have taken on a host of quality teams thus far. In fact, all but one of WBU’s eight opponents are either ranked in the Top 25 or received votes in Tuesday’s poll.

Wayland’s tough schedule will continue when the Pioneers host the Coca-Cola Classic this weekend. WBU’s second match of the two-day tournament — at 7:30 p.m. Friday — is against second-ranked Texas-Brownsville, the defending NAIA national champion. The Ocelots (7-1) were ranked No. 1 in the preseason poll but slipped a spot after new No. 1 Rocky Mountain (Mont.) defeated both UT-Brownsville and then-No. 2 Concordia (Calif.). The Battlin’ Bears (11-2) knocked off three top-10 opponents in a 24-hour span last weekend at the Big Sky Challenge. Rocky Mountain jumped to the top of the poll from the No. 17 spot in the preseason rankings.

Wayland ends the Coca-Cola Classic at 3 p.m. Saturday against No. 7 Columbia, Mo. Also competing in the nine-team tournament will be No. 15 Oklahoma Baptist, although the Pioneers and Bison won’t meet this weekend as they’ll face off twice in Sooner Athletic Conference play.

Speaking of SAC play, that gets under way for Wayland at 7 p.m. Thursday against Mid-America Christian in Hutcherson Center.